It was just a normal day for the campers at Camp Campbell. The two counselors, David and Gwen, were near the playground with most of the campers, talking amongst themselves about how the three main troublemakers, Max, Nikki, and Neil began to make incredible progress... some more than others. What they didn't take note of, however, was that two of the dignified trio weren't where they were supposed to be.

She watched as he desperately attempted to pick the lock that stood between him and the counselor's office. Nikki didn't know why, and she didn't really care, she just wanted to be included in an adventure for once. She began to notice him and Neil started whispering among themselves, and sneaking away together... without her. She felt left out, to say the least, so she wanted to re-include herself with them, otherwise the trio might eventually become a duo, and she didn't want to be drove out again. She's known the two for a quite a few years now. They have school together and, each year, they're sent to Camp Campbell over the summer. Max didn't have a choice on the matter, but Nikki and Neil had to practically beg their parents to let them go. After the first Parent's Day, they were quite reluctant about letting their children go back.

The fifteen year old girl was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of a soft squeaking. Turquoise orbs meeting with rose colored ones, he looked back at her and snickered to himself. "In and out, okay? Don't linger." He demanded, wanting to make sure they were out by the time David noticed they were missing.

She nodded to his claims, a fluttering feeling in her stomach as their eyes locked. His gaze lingered on her a moment too long before tearing away from her with a sigh. He quickly pushed the door open all the way and darted inside, definitely looking for something in particular. She stepped inside and closed the door a bit, so nobody would know they were inside, if someone happened to pass. She walked over to Gwen's desk and opened a couple drawers, not really focusing on anything that was inside, as her thoughts were taking over again.

Five years. She's known them for five years. Even after all this time, she was still scared they would throw her away like yesterday's trash. She knew they wouldn't do that. Neil has reassured her countless times that she is just as precious to him as science was, and she believed him... momentarily. She believed him, until she ran into Max again. Max has been treating her strangely for the past few months. Even when they would all hang out at Neil's over winter break, Max would look at her, and look away whenever she looked back at him. Max would ignore her whenever she smiled, whenever she laughed. She began to feel that he just didn't want to be her friend anymore.

But she adored him. He was always so cool, and never got scared, and never let anything get to him. He was the perfect student, and the most rebellious camper. He had two sides to him; the angel, and the devil. Strangely enough, she loved that about him. He was one of her two best friends, how could she not simply adore him? She adored Neil too, but she felt something slightly different for Neil. She wanted to play video games with Neil, she wanted to study with him, and just hang out. But, with Max... it was different. It completely rattled her brain.

"Nik!" A whisper shout came from her left, near the door. Her head shot up as she closed the drawers she was peering in. She turned to see Max ready to leave, desperately gesturing for her to follow him. She quickly darted after him and locked the door behind them. Max looked at her as they walked back to the playground. "I told you not to linger, what were you doing?" He sounded somewhat annoyed, his hands linked behind his head as he peered over at her.

She shook her head with a smile. "I know, I know, I'm sorry. I was just lost in my thoughts."

Looking away from her with half-lidded eyes, he kept his gaze on the trail ahead of them. "What were you thinking so hard about, anyway? I called your name four times."

"Oh..." She watched him look away from her. It was happening again. "It was nothing. Don't worry about it, okay? I'm going up ahead!" She said happily as she darted ahead of him.

He watched as she bolted down the hill to the playground, a sad look in his eyes. Why couldn't he just tell her how he felt? He's felt this way for five years now. Five whole years, and he still couldn't muster the courage to speak his mind around her. "Dammit, Max!" He hissed to himself. "You blew it. And now she's mad at you. She's a straightforward girl, idiot. If you want any small chance of winning her over, you have to not be a shy bitch." He whispered to himself, kicking up dust as he did so. He looked up from the ground to see Nikki speaking with Neil, happy and laughing.

He wasn't dumb. He saw how she looked at them when he and Neil would go off to talk by themselves. Whenever they would do so, however, Neil would always pester Max about liking her, which means he couldn't tell Nikki what they were talking about. He could, however, if he just mustered up the courage to ask her out! But, no, he decided to be a little fucking cunt. And he couldn't control it. He walked up to the two with his usual stoic expression, heaving a sigh as Neil glared at him.

"Max, can I talk to you for a moment?" Neil spoke up suddenly, giving a quick glance to Nikki before taking Max's wrist and pulling him away from the green haired teenager.

Max didn't object. He followed him without question, his hands instantly finding comfort in his jacket's pockets once the two stopped walking. He looked at Neil with a look of disinterest, having an idea of what Neil wanted to speak to him about.

"Nikki's scaring me."

"She always scares you. It's easy to do."

"No, I mean, really. She's scaring me. She just asked me if I'd be sad if she ran away tomorrow." Neil's voice lowered as he tilted his head down a bit, cautious of anybody else hearing them.

Max's eyes went wide. "What...?"

"Then she asked me why I was so nervous and started laughing. She tried to play it off as joke, but I'm not buying it. What did you say to her?"

"That's not the first time she-"

"For the last eight months, she's been asking me if I cared about her, if I would care if she disappeared one day."

"W-What?"

"I always told her she means more to me than science, and that's really saying something. But she'd always spout some line about how I'm the only one who thinks that."

"..."

"Go talk to her. Whatever's wrong, make it right."

"Eight months ago, you said?"

"Yeah."

"That's... about the time I started crushing on her."

"..."

"I've been neglecting her because I don't like the feeling in my stomach whenever she smiles. It's sickening."

"Like I said, go talk to her."

Max looked down at his feet as he thought about it for a minute. He looked back towards Nikki who was sitting by herself looking at the two, looking abandoned and lonely. He nodded towards Neil and pulled one of his hands out of his pockets to pat Neil on the back. "Thanks for the heads up, man."

"No problem." Neil smiled triumphantly.

Max walked back towards Nikki and knelt down in front of her, sighing a bit. "Hey, Nik, if you have the time, could you... come to my tent fifteen minutes before curfew? I need to talk to you about something. It's kind of important."

"Huh? Um... sure..." She blinked a bit, not quite understanding what exactly he meant by "important."

He smiled and looked down at the dirt castle she was attempting to build. It was so like her.

-
Twenty minutes before curfew,

Max paced back and forth in his tent continuous, not entirely sure what he was going to tell Nikki. He had asked Neil, minutes prior, to leave for a few minutes while he talked with her. Neil was more than willing to oblige, an evil smirk present on his face, which Max just wanted to smack off of it, but he refrained, because Neil was the only one who told him what was going on with Nikki, despite Nerris, Harrison, Dolph, Erid, and multiple others knowing what was wrong.

The few minutes he spent pacing back and forth felt like hours to him, until he heard a quiet zipper. He halted in his tracks and turned to see a head of green hair unzipping his tent, revealing a very anxious looking Nikki. He smiled upon seeing her, gesturing for her to walk further inside. She complied.

"Hey." He said awkwardly.

She seemed just as awkward as she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. "Hey..."

He stepped closer to her, sensing how uncomfortable she was at the moment. He took in a deep breath as he approached her. "I... couldn't help but notice how out of character you were today. Is... is... there something on your mind?"

"What?" She looked at him for a moment, then turned her attention to the ground, not quite sure how to answer. "I told you not to worry about it, it's nothing. Is that really what you called me in here for, though?"

"Well, yeah, and..."

"And?"

He gulped as he took a step back from her, feeling as if he was invading her personal space. He let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke, "Are you mad at me?"

She paused from fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, and looked up at him with slightly widened eyes. "What? Why do you think that?"

"You've been a lot more friendly with Neil than me, lately, and I was just wondering if I did something to make you... you know, mad. I don't want you being upset because of something I said or did." He let his arms drop by his side as he said this, his gaze averting downward.

"You mean... other than favoring Neil over me?" She asked with a sad tone, causing him to look up at her questioningly. She continued. "You've been so busy hanging out with Neil, Max, I just feel like you guys don't want me around anymore. To be honest, I was... actually beginning to think you hated me, or something. Neil still finds time to hang out with me, even with all of his responsibilities, but you don't. Every time you do end up coming around, you're never interested in hanging out with me, only him. But, no. I'm not mad. I could never be mad at you for something so trivial."

He pursed his lips and sighed, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "I don't hate you, Nik. You and Neil are the only two people I've even remotely liked since starting at this camp six years ago. You're the only two who stuck by me, even at school when the other kids were making fun of me for sitting alone, and then you two came along and sat by me. Even with the risk of getting bullied, you stayed. You and Neil, both. I haven't been ignoring you because I hate you, no, that's not the reason. That could never be the reason. I've been ignoring you because..."

"Because...?" She pressed on, feeling somewhat saddened that her little hunch about him ignoring her was right.

"Because it's the opposite."

"Wait, what? The opposite of what?" She rolled her eyes, not understanding what he was trying to say.

"I don't hate you. In fact, I feel the completely opposite way towards you. God damn it, I'm about to sound really stupid. Bear with me, here." He pleaded, causing her nod, then he took a deep breath before continuing, "I feel really weird whenever you smile, or laugh. I hate it, actually. I feel this fluttering feeling in my stomach, and it feels like I ate a bunch of butterflies. Disgusting. And I hated it whenever I would see you and Neil hanging out, I would feel this really heart-wrenching pain in my chest whenever that would happen, or whenever you spoke to or hung out with any other guy from school. Like Thomas. Remember Thomas? Your study-buddy, your chemistry partner, your math tutor... I hated him."

She didn't speak. She wasn't sure where this was going, and was very confused as to why he was saying all of these things. She made him feel sick?

He placed his hands back in his jacket's pockets as he continued on with his story, "I quickly deduced that being around you made me feel queesy, and you being around others made me feel angry. I didn't like how you were making me feel, at all. But not being around you made me feel neglected and lonely. You were just messing with my head, it was like I was wrapped in a knot around your finger, and I couldn't untangle myself."

"Max..."

"So I ignored you. I neglected you, because some part of me wanted to make you feel the way you were making me feel. I wanted to make you feel queesy, angry, neglected, lonely. Damn it, I never thought it'd affect you like this. After talking to Neil today, I realized I... I..."

"Max, you don't need to-"

"I love you." He said, averting his eyes away from her. He didn't find the phrase to be embarrassing, or weird. He just never really pictured himself saying it, especially to such a stupid, naive girl.

She gaped upon hearing those three words leave his mouth. He was never, ever to type to confess anything, especially how he feels. Any type of feeling he's ever had... sadness, anger, even joy... he just locked it away. So, for him to be expressing love so openly like this... it was very... odd.

"You can go." He said, changing the subject. He didn't hear an answer from her, so he didn't want to push, or put her on the spot, or wait for her to answer him. If she didn't feel the same way, that was between her and her feelings. He didn't want any part of it. His eyes began to glisten a bit as he looked back at her still stunned figure. He fought hard to fight back to tears, pointing outside.

"Wh-what?" She took a small step back, confused.

"Oh. So you're deaf now, too? I said, you can go. Just leave." He made a shooing motion with his hands, turning away from her and walking to his bed, laying down horizontally on it, across the middle, as he stared at the ceiling, his hands linked between his head.

She stared at him for a moment, a silent tear escaping her as she stayed in her spot. She opened her mouth to speak, afraid of his answer. "You... really want me to go?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I really do." He turned his head to his right, shutting his eyes tight to keep the tears back. She better leave quick, otherwise he won't be able to contain them much longer.

She gulped upon hearing this. She paused for a moment, and waited a minute before speaking again. "I'm sorry, no."

"What?" He turned to look at her, his eyes visibly holding un-spilled tears at this point.

"I said, I'm sorry, but no." She approached him and sat beside him, looking down. "You expect me to leave without giving you my answer?"

He quickly sat up and brushed away a tear, threatening to spill, with his sleeve. Turquoise orbs meeting rose colored irises once again. He turned his attention to what was directly in front of him as soon as their eyes had met. "I already know what it is. It was the silence, right? You know, you really need to fucking learn how to-"

She pulled on his sleeve, causing him to turn to her... and, as soon as his attention was on her again, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. His eyes shot open at this, too stunned to do anything. She withdrew her head a few seconds later and looked away from him. "I love you, too, Max."

"..." His eyes, at that moment, could rival the size of bowling balls. He stared at her with bulged eyes, not quite sure what to make of what just happened. He did not expect her to kiss him like that. Not at all. Ever.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go." She quickly hopped to her feet and began to make her way out, when he grabbed her arm. She looked down at him in mild surprise.

"W-Wait, you can't just leave."

"Why not? You said you wanted me to, remember?" She smiled a bit. "Also, you have a little..." she gestured to the left side of his face with her free hand.

He released her arm, then felt his left cheek just to notice he had actually let a tear slip. He quickly wiped it away and glared at her. "Fuck you."

"Maybe later." She laughed before running out of his tent.

"Wait!" He called after her, his face red with embarrassment and very mild anger. Deciding not to chase after her, he corrected himself on his bed and layed down vertically, staring up at the ceiling until he heard more quiet zipping. He sat up to see Neil closing the tent's zipper. "Hey." Max greeted before falling back down onto his pillows.

Neil smiled to his darker skinned friend, and walked over to his own bed. "So how'd the talk go with Nikki?"

"I may have just got myself a girlfriend, or a fuck buddy." He propped himself up on his elbows, turning to see Neil with a very confused look on his face. "You know, friends with benefits, something like that."

"What are you talking about?" Neil narrowed his eyes on his friend.

"Nothing..." Max sighed and let himself fall back for a second time. He wasn't entirely sure what to call Nikki yet, but he didn't care. He took one hand out from behind his head and covered his mouth a bit, her kiss still lingering on his lips for what felt like forever, until he fell asleep.

-
I want to make it very clear that I did not proof-read this. This was actually my first ever Camp Camp fanfiction, judge it however you please. As you can tell, they're teenagers in this. I'm not sure what their actual age gap is, so I made him sixteen and her fifteen. This is a two-parter.

-Sbc